Stan Dup wrote:Is there a way to shelter any income from this business? I am vaguely familiar that small businesses can have versions of the IRA or other plans.

There are several small-business plans. They have different rules and restrictions. At your stage your best options are SEP IRA, SIMPLE IRA, and solo 401k (aka Individual 401k, aka Self-Employed 401k).

Can I shelter money in addition to my regular contributions to my 401K and Roth IRA?

If you are already maxing your 401k then a SIMPLE IRA will not work because the SIMPLE IRA limit of $12.5K is shared with the 401k limit of $18K. You can't use the employEE portion of the solo 401k because its $18K limit is shared with your other 401k. You could either use a SEP IRA or the employER portion of a solo 401k. In both cases that would be about 20% of net income.

I would look at Fidelity for a solo401k. They allow you to roll in other retirement accounts, which Vanguard does not allow. So there is the option to consolidate accounts more easily in the future. They also have lower ERs for their solo401k options than Vanguard does.

Having looked into this a bit recently, on threads on this forum and elsewhere, there are several options for solo 401ks. None of these options offer everything you might want, but unless you want every option you'll probably find something to fit your needs.

The main low-cost providers are:
- Vanguard - Roth 401k option, but limited range of investor funds only (not Admiral, so higher expense ratio), plus restricted rollover options (no incoming rollovers? I forget the details since it's not something we need)
- Fidelity - no Roth 401k option, but wide range of investments including no-fee funds and ETFs
- Schwab - no Roth 401k option, but wide range of investments including no-fee funds and ETFs
- Etrade - Roth 401k option, but no-fee funds and ETFs are generally higher expense ratio, or you pay $7/trade
- TD Ameritrade - The details on this seem opaque, and reports ont his forum suggest that customer service reps don't understand the accounts. I could be wrong.
Only some of these have 401k loan options, maybe only Etrade. Also, as I understand it, Fidelity and Schwab, maybe others, require you to fund the accounts using a paper check, which I find archaic.

There are others, that are more expensive, usually charging monthly admin fees. They might provide additional options, if you can't find what you need above. These include:
- T Rowe Price
- Sharebuilder and Spark (both owned by Capital One - not sure if these have the same options)
- Merrill Edge (this really looks uncompetitive)

Alternatively, you can choose a "checkbook" solo 401k plan, that allows you to invest in all sorts of investments, including real estate, but the costs for this are much higher, both for set-up and ongoing administration.